Destruction
by MorningxLight
Summary: A one-shot of the final battle. Some Katniss/Peeta, hints of Gale/Madge and Haysilee. Request from Tour de Force: hope you like it. T for some language.


Her hair has slipped out of the braid she usually wears it in, he notices through the sweat pouring down his forehead into his eyes.

Those few seconds of distraction cost him, though. Gale feels a hit to his face, which makes him stumble, then, before he can recover, and swift kick to his legs, sending him to the ground. The next thing he knows is the Capitol soldier standing over him holding a gun.

He fully expects to be shot. What he doesn't expect is the whirl of golden hair that crashes into the man above him, yelling at the top of her lungs. He almost does a double take when he realizes it's Madge Undersee, _Madge, the Mayor's daughter, Undersee, _the Merchant _brat_, that has tackled the Capitol bastard. But he's learned his lesson and does not allow himself to be distracted, though he supposes that thinking of Madge that way is rather unfair.

After all, while Katniss sat in a catatonic state after learning of Peeta-fucking-Mellark's capture, refusing to eat and not paying any attention to her family when they came to visit, Madge was mourning her parents, yet still managed to keep busy, working with the nurses on the hovercraft and in the hospital once they reached District 13.

Or so he heard. It's not like he's been keeping tabs on her, looking out for her or anything like that. He's just noticed that she isn't a Merchant brat anymore. _And maybe she never was, _he adds grudgingly.

Still, it's not the time to be thinking of this sort of thing, not when there are arrows flying and guns firing and bombs exploding and bodies falling all around him. He rejoins the living in beating down the Peacekeepers in order to reach President Snow's fancy mansion. Which, strangely enough, doesn't look so stately with the violence raging around it.

…

Katniss is determined to never, ever, _ever_, lose Peeta Mellark again. She knows it hurts Gale that she loves Peeta and not him, but it's not exactly like she can help it. Gale may have been her best friend for years, and they have spent so many hours together hunting in the woods, but if Peeta hadn't given her that bread, she wouldn't have been alive to befriend Gale in the first place. On top of that, she has gone through two Hunger Games with him. They are connected in a way Gale could never understand.

She stops this line of thought quickly, focusing on the job at hand: destroy the Capitol, kill the Peacekeepers, and rescue Peeta. Finnick is nearby, no doubt thinking of Annie back in 13, whom they rescued weeks ago, along with Johanna. The original mission was to save all three of the Victors, but it was botched. So only Annie and Johanna got out.

Katniss had been furious. Thinking of that rage, she channels it and takes down the man in the white (blood-stained) uniform running at her. In the corner of her eye, she sees Gale fall to the ground, and her heart constricts at the thought of losing her best friend, her hunting partner. She's about to shoot at whoever did it, but she sees Madge push the man over with surprising strength.

At first, she's angry. Angry that Madge took her kill. Gale is _her_ best friend. She _deserves_ to kill the man who had killed him. But then she sees- Gale isn't dead, and he seems as surprised as she is at his savior, before he turns and continues. She does the same, relief coursing through her veins, and also some worry about her friend. How would Madge, slim, tiny Madge, take down that son of a bitch from the Capitol, who must weigh in at two, three hundred pounds?

Her first instinct is to help, but she seems to be doing fine on her own, so she instead continues towards the Training Center, which she knows Haymitch will not approve of, but she just doesn't care at the moment. All she cares about is getting to Peeta.

So she runs. As fast as her legs can carry her, she sprints, breathing heavily and killing every single Capitol resident she sees.

…

Madge doesn't know, exactly, what she's doing here. She's been with the medics in all the other battles, tending and healing the wounded. She doesn't have the guts to actually kill. To take a life. Still, she's here, in the middle of the fighting. What was she thinking?

She has no idea. All she knows is that she saw Gale, Gale Hawthorne, the boy who she has never seen lose a fight, fall to the ground. She only knows the intense fear she feels for him as she sees the man from the Capitol point a gun at him. She only know rage, burning in her bones, as she runs and jumps at him, thinking, _You will not kill Gale._ The war-cry that leaves her throat she is completely unaware of, so consumed with fear and rage and, she'll admit, some victory. Tackling a full grown man at her height-5'5- is something she considers quite a feat.

And she doesn't just tackle him. Madge can punch, too, and that's what she does. One, two, three, his face is a bloody mess. Soon enough, though, she is out of luck. He gains his bearings and pushes her off and stands up. She scrambles out of the way. Someone else can kill him.

Her heart is pumping with adrenaline, and she grabs a gun that's lying in the street, mostly just for self defense. At least until she can reach the medics' tent. She makes her way back without incident, and she's almost there...

Only it's not there. It's gone. Madge feels sick; it bears all the signs of being bombed. All the nurses and doctors she'd become friends with.. all the patients! Bombed. Blown up. It makes her blood run cold with the knowledge that she could've been in there when it happened.

…

He is definitely isn't cut out for this. He's cut out for strategy, thinking games. Haymitch Abernathy, despite being a drunkard, is an intelligent, manipulative man. But he's mostly a drunkard. He needs a drink.

All this-the bodies, the chaos, the Capitol; it's bringing him back to his games. Back to Maysilee Donner, the crafty little Townie he'd met in his Games. He hates that the Games brought them together, because the Games also tore them apart. It fuels his hatred, his drinking, his desire to lose himself.

He sways where he stands, feeling withdrawal and he can see _her, _her blonde hair and blue eyes and her smile, the way it seemed so genuine yet the corners of her eyes never relaxed, not like he could fault her for that, since they were in the Arena, after all.

Only it's not her. It's her niece. Madge, is it? Haymitch growls in disgust, at himself mostly, and joins the fight.

…

Gale has just triumphed over a Peacekeeper when he realizes it's over. He's standing up, looking around for more opponents, when he sees that the only people standing are either in the Rebellion's uniform, or are handcuffed; hostages. He lets out a whoop of joy instead of wallowing in the misery of death.

Katniss has just reached Peeta. No one is inside to guard the building, or the room he's in, mistaken in their belief that it would be impossible to get through the army. She has just wrapped her arms around his unconscious form and his eyes have just flickered open when she stops. Listens. There's silence: no gunfire, no screams, no explosions. She realizes it's over. Hugging Peeta tight, kissing his forehead, she lets tears of relief run down her cheeks.

Madge is running around, pulling those too wounded to continue fighting to the sidelines, where she treats them, minimally. There's not much she can do, because she's just a nurse, and all the supplies have been blown up. She's cursing mentally when she finds a particularly bad case, but just continues what she's doing, not realizing that people have come to help her. And she knows they've won.

Haymitch knows exactly when it's over. But he's still paranoid. He looks around, over his shoulder, before walking away. The gun in his hand is out of ammo, so he picks another one up off a dead body. He keeps looking back, sure that there must be some trick, some catch. His mind is in the Arena with Maysilee. He keeps walking, walking, walking. Haymitch needs a drink.

**A/N: …... So.. Did you.. like.. it? I hope you did. I decided to get off my lazy butt and write this for Tour de Force. Since she requested it. I hope it lives up to her standards. So. Leave a review and tell me if you hated it or not. Thank you for reading. Oh, and sorry that there's so much Madge. I'd been reading too many Madge/Gale stories and it sort of just.. ended up there. Plus, I like her. She's cool.**


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